TEHRAN (Press Shia) – Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif condemned a recent US-led attack on Syria, stressing that no country has the right to arbitrarily take punitive action against other nations.

The US, Britain and France launched airstrikes against multiple places in Syria early Saturday following US President Donald Trump's order despite international warnings against further escalation of the situation in the Arab country and across the Middle East.

The US-led military coalition has accused the Syrian government of having allegedly attacked the militant-held town of Douma in the Eastern Ghouta region on April 7 and claimed that the Saturday air strikes had been aimed at deterring Syria's further use of chemical weapons.

In a telephone conversation with his British counterpart Boris Johnson on Sunday, Zarif said the airstrikes over the alleged use of chemical weapons in Douma, Eastern Ghouta, and also Khan Shaykhun, Idlib, came “exactly at a time when the Syrian army had the upper-hand against terrorists and they were on the verge of defeat".

He further slammed the “arbitrary”, “illegal” and “unilateral” move by the US, the UK and France against the Arab country, saying,“No country deserves the right to enforce punitive measures against other countries arbitrarily without observing international regulations”.

The fresh strikes by the US marked the second time that Trump has authorized attacks on Syria.

He ordered a missile strike against Shayrat Airbase in Syria’s Homs Province on April 7, 2017. Trump claimed back then that the airfield had been the origin of a suspected sarin gas attack on the town of Khan Shaykhun in Syria’s Idlib Province on April 4, 2017.